Football: The Best Defense in the Nation

Brian Fremeau ('99) | Nov 14, 2012, 2:36 PM EST

The story of the season has been defensive dominance, as we have documented in our Drive Charting posts all year long. The chart above illustrates one of Notre Dame’s most remarkable defensive stats, preventing opponents from driving the length of the field to the end zone. On 93 opponent drives started at or inside the opponent’s 40-yard line, the Irish have given up one touchdown. That 3-play, 75-yard scoring drive by Navy occurred on the sixth opponent possession of the year. Notre Dame hasn’t given up a 60-plus yard touchdown drive in 87 straight opportunities since.